Cuba invested heavily in health care, establishing the family doctor programme and declaring primary health care and community health promotion priority areas. Today, there is a family doctor and nurse for every 120 families on the island.

Cuba invested heavily in health care, establishing the family doctor programme and declaring primary health care and community health promotion priority areas. Today, there is a family doctor and nurse for every 120 families on the island.

Despite the hardship imposed by the 40-year US blockade, Cuba, whose economic parameters rank among the world's poorest nations, has the same life expectancy and infant mortality as Britain and the US.

In 1998, the World Health Organisation presented then Cuban president Fidel Castro with the Health for All Award in recognition of his country reaching all health goals set for developing countries to achieve by 2000. - Source: University of Western Cape